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Camelot to split into two units after current CEO’s retirement in October

Lottery operator Camelot has announced that its long-time chief executive officer, Dianne Thompson, will retire in October this year.

Thompson will retire on October 31, 2014, after fourteen years as Group CEO and seventeen years with the company. She had initially planned to quit the company in 2012, but she agreed to head the company for a couple of more years to devise and implement the group's ambitious global growth strategy and further develop the U. K. strategy.

During Thompson tenure as CEO, Camelot bagged two licence competitions that allowed the company to keep hold of the business and got its current licence extended by four years to 2023.

The company posted record sales of £7 billion in the fiscal year 2012/13, well above sales of £5 billion in the fiscal year 2000/01. Her tenure also saw the creation of more than 3,500 lottery millionaires. In 2013 alone, the company paid £3.7 billion in prizes.

Speaking about her planned departure, she said, "I have always said that running Camelot has been my dream job, and I will look back over the last 14 years with great fondness and pride."

She joined Camelot in 1997 as its commercial operations director, before taking the top job three years later. Prior to joining Camelot, she served ICI and Woolworths as a marketing executive.

Thompson planned departure in October will see the top position at the company spilt in two. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has announced that it would restructure the business to create two separate units - one will run the UK lottery, while the other will focus on overseas opportunities. Camelot UK Lotteries will be headed by Andy Duncan - the current managing director of the company's UK business; while CFO Nigel Railton will become the CEO of Camelot global services.